Good morning and welcome to Middle East Live. This blog is now primarily a forum for readers to share links and offer commentary on developments in the Middle East and North Africa. Please post your contributions below.

Here are today’s headlines:

Syria

•The Local Co-ordination Committees, a Syrian activist group, reported that 136 people were killed in fighting across the country yesterday, 72 of them in Aleppo, and 36 in Damascus and its suburbs. Unusually, the figure provided by the Syrian Network for Human Rights, another group monitoring the conflict, was much lower: 89. The group claimed eight people were killed in an attack by “poisonous gases” in Zamalka in the countryside around the capital, offering this video, uploaded yesterday, as evidence. The groups’ figures and claims. cannot be verified because media access to Syria is limited.

•The Syrian National Coalition, the main umbrella opposition group backed by the west, warned of a “potential siege” and possible “massacre” by government forces in Tal Kalakh, in Homs province in the west of the country. The SNC called on the international community “to put an end to Assad’s continued violations of international charters and covenants and its crimes against the Syrian people”.

Lebanon

•Military forces are fighting the followers of a hardline Sunni cleric who backs Syria’s rebels. With 12 soldiers killed so far, the clashes in Sidon with the supporters of Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir are some of the fiercest linked to Syria’s conflict across the border.

Qatar

•Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, is planning meetings with members of his ruling family to possibly start a handover of power to the crown prince, al Jazeera reports. It is unusual for al Jazeera to report on Qatari affairs – the influential TV station was founded by Qatar’s government. Qatar has given no information about the emir’s health, but he is believed to be unwell. No immediate policy changes would be expected under the 33-year-old crown prince, Sheikh Tamim, the Associated Press reports. Qatar is a leading funder of Syria’s rebels and is also hosting US-led peace talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Egypt

•Egypt's army has cautioned that it will intervene next weekend if mass rallies against the president descend into violence, in one of its strongest warnings since it handed over to civilian government a year ago. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the defence minister, said he would not allow "attack on the will of the people" and called for political reconciliation in the week before mass rallies against President Mohamed Morsi next Sunday, reports Patrick Kingsley in Cairo.

Turkey

• Mass demonstrations against the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayip Erdoğan, should not be allowed to derail talks with Kurdish rebels, Britain's roving peace negotiator, Jonathan Powell, has said. The former diplomat, who is lending his support to the process aimed at ending the 30-year conflict, said it would be a tragedy if civil rights confrontations with the Turkish government knocked the dialogue off course, reports Owen Bowcott.

Saudi Arabia

•Saudi Arabia has announced it is switching its official weekend to Fridays and Saturdays, bringing its working week closer in line with other countries in a move long desired by many of its businesses.